Far Cry can be a tough game. Tri-gens can rip your head off in one or two swipes, your enemies in later levels are possessed of armor that can take multiple sniper rounds before they go down, and you can expect to be outgunned pretty much all of the time. However, what really makes the difference between a challenging game and an annoying one is the number of times you need to play through the same twenty minutes of a level over and over again. This is why I, personally, hate checkpoint-based save systems with all my heart. In an FPS where you don't have regenerating shields or health, you can screw up and make forward progress for yourself impossible at least once every thirty seconds if you're not careful, which puts you at a serious disadvantage against you enemies; they only need to get lucky once, while you need to be lucky all the time.
However, if you can save anywhere you like, dying becomes a learning experience instead of a torturous one. Which is why I am telling you how to open the developer console to save your game at any time and in any place you like. This is not a cheat code: there is no debug mode you need to turn on or any modifications you need to make to the game's files. All you need to do is:
1. Hit the "~" key.
2. Type in "\save_game savegamename" (you can write whatever you want in place of "savegamename").
3. Profit. Games you have saved will appear in the list of checkpoints you can load from in the main menu.

I've seen the -devmode cheats which also allow saving and loading (as well as the god mode count and noclip). However, with the saving and loading it doesn't create a checkpoint save and only seems to record player and enemy placement.
This used the following:
Input:BindAction("SAVEPOS", "f9", "default");
Input:BindAction("LOADPOS", "f10", "default");
With this, items seem to be unchanged by the loading. For example, when you get to the first hang glider I once got killed and lost the glider, but using the load command returned me to the cliff but the glider was not returned.
What I'd like to know is does the method of saving and loading you have described here record all item positional data aswell?

Item positional data? You mean, where items are placed on the map? Far as I know, yes. Saving by the means I described basically tricks the computer into creating a checkpoint wherever you like, with all the different rules that entails.

I've just checked elsewhere on the net for confirmation and by creating the checkpoint saves it does remember all item positional data, just like the automatic checkpoint saves (you can tell it does because the loading window appears, whereas the positional save was instant).
However, the commands for the DevMode.lua file are slightly different to the console commands you gave. By using these lines:
Input:BindCommandToKey("#Game:Save('Quicksave')","f9",1);
Input:BindCommandToKey("#Game:Load('Quicksave')","f10",1);
It binds the quicksave and quickload functions to keys F9 and F10 respectively.
So, many thanks for the heads up as it led me to this. :)
Now, is there a way to prevent the auto checkpoint creation as it can still catch you out on low health, though is not that much of a problem when you can create checkpoint saves at any time.

I'm not going to say that it's impossible to do automatic checkpoint-saving. I will say that I have no idea how you would do that without substantial modifications to the game.

Automatic checkpoint-saving is built into the game. As you play the game normally, every once in a while it creates a checkpoint save.

What I was talking about was being able to stop the game from doing this as the LUA code I'd put (for use with DevMode) allows you to create a checkpoint save at any time, so no need for the automatic ones any more.

I also usually don't like a checkpoint system but in far cry i really loved it since it made the game so much more intense and hardcore and you had to really play it out. I mean what's the point of saving after every opponent ? In far cry this system worked good, i usually hate it as well but in far cry i like it. The game is best played on realistic modus since then the AI is excellent and one of the best i have ever seen in any other ego-shooter.

Well then, sir, you are a far more skilled and patient player than I. I'm just here for the story and the thrill of violence, not so much for the dying repeatedly.

Really the story of far cry is a piece of junk, i would NOT play it for the story it just makes no sense. Far cry has always been all about the gameplay and yes of course far cry is challenging. Just don't play it in a run and gun style and play it with stealth then far cry get's much easier. Try to distract with the stone and often lay down for good cover and so forth.

And i give you some more help:

Set the keys for every ability like go into your knees and lay down near your WASD.
Use them often and also very special in far cry is you can lean and fire at the same time. Extremely helpful for many situations. Make use of your range of your weapons. Veteran modus is even possible for a not extremely good player.
But realistic modus you must play like god ^^.
On realistic modus the trigens are your least problem...

Warning to anyone using the command prompt saving:

If you save in combat, loading the game bugs out the AI. All enemies forget what they were doing, are basically reset and will only start their routine once they see you again. So keep in mind that you will be actively hampering your experience if you do in-combat saves. It will cancel any ongoing flanking attempts or strategy the AI was doing before the load.

I've even had an enemy helicopter just straight up leave after loading a game, because it forgot what it was doing.

It can also break some mission scripts. And every time you load a game, you get auto-healed to 50% health, meaning you can easily cheeese through fights

So if you use this saving method, at least try using it out of combat/between encounters only.